Inside Aperture

November 2008

A Look Inside the Aperture Nature Photography Workshop
by Derrick Story
Tuesday November 18, 2008
While at PhotoPlus Expo in NY, Derrick Story sat down with Rob Trueman and Cathy Chung to talk about their experiences with the Fall 2008 Aperture Nature Photography Workshop in the Grand Teton National Park. Rob and Cathy were two of the four contest winners who earned a trip to the Grand Tetons where they received one-on-one instruction. During this discussion they talk about what they learned and how they are applying that knowledge now.

October 2008

From Windows to Aperture - Interview with Ben McMillan
by Derrick Story
Thursday October 02, 2008
Ben McMillan has been a working photographer in Beijing for more than four years. During that time, he's seen the city go through dramatic changes, leading up to the Olympics. In this conversation, Ben talks about his Beijing experience, and how he also went through a personal change when he discovered Aperture during the games.

September 2008

Mine Kasapoglu on Location in Beijing
by Derrick Story
Thursday September 11, 2008
Mine Kasapoglu photographed her first Olympics in 2002 at Salt Lake City. She's been shooting them ever since, including this year in Beijing where I caught up with her for this interview. Mine was first introduced to Aperture at the 2006 Torino Olympics. Nobody really knew about Aperture then, including Mine. But she was in great photographic pain and gave it a try. Here's her story two years later.

August 2008

The Story Behind the Olympic Picture of the Day
by Derrick Story
Tuesday August 26, 2008
The Kodak Picture of the Day has been an Olympic tradition for decades now. While I was in Beijing, I had a chance to sit down with Rich Connolly, Director of Olympic Operations for Kodak, to talk about how the Picture of the Day came about, and the behind the scenes process for its daily selection during the Games.

Aperture Screencast 5: Managing Previews
by Derrick Story
Tuesday August 19, 2008
Aperture's previews are an important link to sharing your images with the outside world. Previews are JPEG renderings of your processed Raw files and, once generated, are easily accessible via other applications and output methods. In this screencast, Derrick Story shows you how to expertly manage your previews so you are always in control of your images.

Noise Ninja Plugin for Aperture
by Derrick Story
Tuesday August 05, 2008
PictureCode has released Noise Ninja for Aperture, and it's the latest in the series of Edit Plugins that expand Aperture's image editing abilities. In this podcast, Derrick Story talks with Joe Schorr about Noise Ninja, and about the new plugins resource page on Apple's web site.

July 2008

Aperture Screencast 4: Introduction to Lift and Stamp
by Derrick Story
Tuesday July 29, 2008
Lift and Stamp in Aperture is a tremendous time saver when you want to apply image adjustments or metadata to multiple images. In this movie, Derrick Story shows you how to take advantage of this power, plus a shortcut you can apply directly from the keyboard.

Aperture Screencast 3: Working with the Basic Levels Adjustments
by Derrick Story
Tuesday July 22, 2008
The Levels adjustment is a comfortable tool for many photographers. In part, because it allows you to individually adjust the shadows, midtones, and highlights with the assistance of a histogram. In this screencast, Derrick Story walks you through the basic levels adjustments in Aperture.

Aperture Screencast 2: Spot Removal with the Retouch Tool
by Derrick Story
Tuesday July 15, 2008
Aperture's Retouch tool has both "Repair" and "Clone" modes to help you tackle a variety of imperfections. In this screencast, Derrick Story shows you how to use the Repair mode for removing spots, such as sensor dust. He then demonstrates the Clone mode for larger cleanups.

Aperture Screencast 1: Designing a Postcard with Custom Layouts
by Derrick Story
Tuesday July 08, 2008
The book making tool in Aperture 2.1 goes well beyond the handsome stock templates that Apple provides. It's actually a sophisticated layout tool that you can use to design posters, fliers, invitations, and more. In this screencast, Derrick Story shows you how to use these tools to design a postcard with imagery and metadata from your Aperture library.

June 2008

Know Your Lens Model and Other Metadata Tricks in Aperture
by Derrick Story
Thursday June 05, 2008
Would you like to know the exact lens you used for every shot in your Aperture library? In this podcast with Joe Schorr, Derrick Story learns about the new "Lens Model" field and how to use it. Plus Joe explains how to update your previously uploaded images in Aperture to also display this information. Other helpful techniques include tapping the power of the Query HUD and changes in Aperture 2 to help you better look inside Stacks.

May 2008

Reader Submitted Tips for Aperture
by Derrick Story
Thursday May 15, 2008
One of the fun things about running the "Inside Aperture" site is receiving reader contributions. Every now and then a clever new technique shows up in our Aperture mailbox, many of which I try. But why should I get to have all the fun? So, this week I'm sharing a handful of reader-submitted techniques. My guess is that you'll find one or two particularly useful.

Layout Tool Disguised as Aperture's Book Making Function
by Derrick Story
Tuesday May 06, 2008
Aperture 2.1 includes a more versatile book-making tool than we saw in earlier versions. So powerful in fact, that calling it a book making tool is really selling it short. It's actually a flexible layout application with some very useful output options. In this podcast, Derrick Story talks with Joe Schorr and tries to uncover all the hidden gems buried in Aperture 2.1.

April 2008

Sal Soghoian on Extending Aperture with AppleScript
by Derrick Story
Thursday April 10, 2008
Apple automation guru, Sal Soghoian talks about the scriptability of Aperture in this podcast interview with Derrick Story. Sal points to the "Aperture-InDesign Integration Demo" as a powerful example of how AppleScript can extend Aperture's capabilities.

March 2008

Aperture 2 Features 101-103 with Joe Schorr
by Derrick Story
Tuesday March 18, 2008
Apple's web page says, "Aperture 2 delivers over 100 dramatic, new features." And still there are a few terrific ones they forgot to put on the list. In this podcast, Derrick Story chats with Joe Schorr, Senior Product Manager for Aperture, to uncover a few of these hidden gems.

Using the New Adjustment Tools in Aperture 2.0, Part Two
by Ellen Anon
Tuesday March 11, 2008
In this second of two parts, Ellen Anon (Aperture Exposed and Inside Aperture) takes you through the bottom half of Aperture's Adjustment palette brick by brick. She picks up with the Enhance brick and continues down through the rest of the new tools. This two part article series is a great resource that belongs in any Aperture bookmark list.

Using the New Adjustment Tools in Aperture 2.0, Part One
by Ellen Anon
Tuesday March 04, 2008
In this first of two parts, Ellen Anon (Aperture Exposed and Inside Aperture) takes you through the top half of the Adjustment palette brick by brick. This article is a terrific reference piece that that should come in handy time and time again. Next week in Part Two, Ellen picks up with the Enhance brick and continues down through the rest of the adjustments.

February 2008

Aperture 2.0 with Joe Schorr
by Derrick Story
Tuesday February 12, 2008
Aperture 2.0 is faster, easier to use, and produces better images, says Joe Schorr, Apple Senior Product Manager. In this interview with Derrick Story, Joe explains how Aperture 2.0 meets those lofty claims. This chat covers a lot of new ground.

January 2008

Joe Schorr on Leopard and Aperture
by Derrick Story
Tuesday January 08, 2008
Leopard brings a host of new goodies for Aperture users by virtue of the new photography functionality baked right into the operating system. In this interview with Senior Product Manager Joe Schorr, you'll hear some of the most enticing and useful features for Aperture photographers.

December 2007

John McDermott on Assignment with Aperture
by Derrick Story
Thursday December 13, 2007
John McDermott's workflow once consisted of handing off rolls of Kodachrome to a courier and waiting to see which images appeared in Newsweek. He then struggled through the awkward digital transition until he discovered Aperture. In this conversation with Derrick Story, John talks about his life as an assignment photographer, and how he's adapting to the changing photography landscape.

November 2007

Sal Soghoian on Leopard, Automation, and Aperture
by Derrick Story
Tuesday November 27, 2007
Apple's product manager of automation technologies is the same guy who many of us consider the ultimate AppleScript guru: Sal Soghoian. Even though Sal and I live only a few hours apart, I had to go all the way to the Caribbean to chase him down for this podcast interview. It was worth it. Sal talks about Leopard, automation improvements, and of course, how this all affects Aperture.

Backup Strategies with Aperture, Part Two
by Josh Anon
Friday November 09, 2007
In this second part of a two-part series, Josh Anon takes a look at the best ways to back up Aperture files with third party tools such as RSyncX, .Mac, and Retrospect, and online options. Josh also explores Leopard and Time Machine to see if there's functionality there for hardcore Aperture users.

Backup Strategies with Aperture
by Josh Anon
Friday November 02, 2007
In part one of this two-part series covering strategies for protecting your photos, Josh Anon discusses some basic archiving concepts and then delves into hard drive options, including RAID configurations. There's lots of food for thought here as you devise your strategy for storing images.

October 2007

Apple at PhotoPlus Expo 07 - Joe Schorr Interview

Friday October 26, 2007
Apple Senior Product Manager, Joe Schorr, sits down with Derrick Story on the last day of the 2007 PhotoPlus Expo show in New York City. Joe discusses the growing interest in Aperture's custom books, integration with Keynote for DVD authoring, and the growing popularity of the application among big time photographers.

Publishing with Aperture - Jennifer Sauer Interview
by Derrick Story
Friday October 05, 2007
Jennifer Sauer is a pro shooter who has incorporated Aperture into her post production workflow... but not in the way you might imagine. For her latest project, The Way to Tea (a glorious book that's an adventure guide to San Francisco tea culture), she chose Aperture to handle the Raw processing for images from her Canon 5D. She also used Photo Mechanic and Photoshop for other stages of production.

September 2007

Teaching with Aperture - Ben Long Interview
by Derrick Story
Friday September 21, 2007
One of the most startling things teacher Ben Long learned about last summer, while teaching photography to teenagers, was the caliber of the students: their dedication and focus was impressive, as was the quality of their work. What also impressed Ben was how much easier it is to teach and manage a lab using Aperture. In this conversation with Derrick Story, Ben talks about Aperture in the classroom.

Organizing Power Tips with Joe Schorr
by Derrick Story
Wednesday September 05, 2007
Do you know the difference between blue folders and yellow folders? What do you do if you're about to meet with clients and want only their images to show in Aperture? In this podcast interview with Joe Schorr, Derrick Story discovers advanced organizing tips for Aperture power users.

August 2007

iLife '08 for Aperture Users with Joe Schorr
by Derrick Story
Thursday August 16, 2007
Apple recently released iLife '08 with a truckload of goodies for Aperture users. In this podcast, Joe Schorr tells you how to use some of these new tools and discusses the latest Aperture update (1.5.4).

Slideshows from your Aperture Images, Part 2
by Dominique James
Wednesday August 15, 2007
In part two of our series on creating slideshows with Aperture images, you'll learn how to tap iDVD and Keynote to build professional presentations for clients and promotion. iLife's integration with Aperture makes it the perfect source library for authoring dynamic slideshows.

Pictures in Motion: Slideshows from your Aperture Images
by Dominique James
Thursday August 09, 2007
Aperture provides plenty of tools for creating professional looking slideshows from your images. But you have even more possibilities outside its cozy confines thanks to its interoperability with other Mac OS X applications. In this first part of a two-part series, Dominique James explores the options within Aperture, then takes you on a tour of other Mac OS X slideshow tools.

July 2007

Version Control in Aperture
by Jeffery Morse
Wednesday July 25, 2007
Many Aperture users don't realize exactly what's happening behind the scenes with versions, how many options there are, and what versions actually entail. In this article, Apple Pro Trainer Jeffery Morse takes you inside Aperture's versioning function so you can tap its power to its fullest potential.

Advanced Aperture Techniques with Joe Schorr
by Derrick Story
Tuesday July 03, 2007
Have you tapped the power of Album Picks or mastered the Primary Only function? In this edition of Inside Aperture, Joe Schorr talks with Derrick Story and explains some of his favorite power techniques.

June 2007

Hands on with the Aperture 1.5 Professional Keyboard
by Bakari Chavanu
Friday June 29, 2007
I wanted to work faster in Aperture 1.5 and realized that I needed to stop being the mousy navigator that I am and begin learning more keyboard shortcuts. I mean, really, mousing to the Adjustment HUD five or six times a session is just ridiculous. So I checked out LogicKeyboard's Apple Pro Keyboard for Aperture, and have a hands-on report for Inside Aperture readers.

More on Export Plug-Ins
by Derrick Story
Tuesday June 19, 2007
Aperture made its WWDC debut with its first official session and an after-hours reception hosted by AUPN. Derrick Story sits down with Richard Kerris, Micah Walter, and David Schloss to talk about the latest in export plug-in development, hot plug-ins, Aperture Plugged In web site, and the Aperture Users Professional Network.

Joe Schorr on iPhoto to Aperture
by Derrick Story
Friday June 01, 2007
Many photographers have scores of valuable images stored in iPhoto libraries. As Aperture becomes incorporated into the workflow, what's the best way to move those pictures to the Aperture environment? And what if you want to share your Raw files with both iPhoto and Aperture? In this podcast, Joe Schorr, senior product manager for Aperture, explains all of the inside tricks for working with both iPhoto and Aperture libraries.

May 2007

Digitizing Your Film Archive with Aperture
by Micah Walter
Friday May 25, 2007
One of the biggest challenges to digitizing your film archive is organization and metadata management. In this article, Micah Walter proposes a sane approach to bringing your analog past into the digital age.

What Does Photoshop CS3 Mean for Aperture Users?
by Josh Anon
Thursday May 17, 2007
Aperture's comprehensive set of photo management tools keep users within the Aperture environment for the bulk of their work. But for more complicated image editing tasks, round tripping to Photoshop is often the workflow of choice. CS3 offers improved performance and new tools, many of which will be of interest to Aperture users. In this article, Josh Anon take you on a tour of the best of these improvements.

April 2007

Rick LePage on Fine Art Printers for Aperture
by Derrick Story
Monday April 30, 2007
Affordable hardware for fine art printing is more bountiful than ever. In this exclusive Inside Aperture podcast, Macworld editor at large, Rick LePage, covers the latest offerings from Epson, HP, and Canon. Rick supplies plenty of insight about how HP is challenging Epson, and some thoughts about Canon's emergence, then absence in the mid range fine art market. Derrick Story chats with Rick during a visit to San Francisco.

Controlling the Aperture User Interface
by Dominique James
Wednesday April 18, 2007
In this article, pro shooter Dominique James shows us his commonly used techniques for working faster and smarter with Aperture. He shares some of the most practical tools that he uses when dealing with thousands of shots from his studio sessions or location photo shoots. He also provides a nifty list of his favorite keyboard shortcuts.

Joe Buissink on Capturing the Moment
by Derrick Story
Wednesday April 11, 2007
At the recent WPPI conference, Joe Buissink discussed how to unlock the artist inside of you. I really enjoyed Joe's presentation and wanted to follow up with an interview with this "wedding photographer to the stars." I discovered that he is just as informative, interesting, and candid in person as he is on stage, and I think you'll learn much from this exclusive chat with him in Las Vegas.

March 2007

Robert Leslie on Shooting TED and Using Aperture
by Derrick Story
Tuesday March 27, 2007
Event photographers need all the help they can get to survive the grueling hours and gigabytes of data they amass. Pro shooter Robert Leslie just completed one of the most challenging events of all, the TED conference in Monterey, California. In this Inside Aperture interview, Derrick Story talks with Robert about TED, tips for successful event assignments, and Aperture's impact on these types of gigs.

Joe Schorr on UI Customization in Aperture
by Derrick Story
Thursday March 15, 2007
In this edition of "Inside Aperture," Joe Schorr, Apple Senior Product Manager, provides a bounty of tips for customizing the user interface. You might want to have Aperture running as you listen so you can see how these adjustments look, then pick the ones right for you.

Aperture vs Lightroom - An O'Reilly "Inside Aperture" Field Test
by Micah Walter
Tuesday March 06, 2007
During a week long field test of Aperture and Lightroom, Micah Walter put both photo management applications to the test comparing ease of use, tool set, speed, and output. He summarizes his findings in this article with links to the complete set of blog posts that he published during the week of testing.

February 2007

Greg Scallon on Online Printing and Books
by Derrick Story
Tuesday February 27, 2007
Greg Scallon manages online printing and books for Apple's Aperture and iPhoto products. In this episode of Inside Aperture, he provides an insider's look at the book production process, including the similarities and differences between the printing services for iPhoto and Aperture. Derrick Story interviews Greg in this exclusive O'Reilly Media podcast.

The HP Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer - Pro Quality at an Enthusiast's Price
by Derrick Story
Thursday February 15, 2007
Photographers searching for an affordable, gallery-quality, pigment-based inkjet printer should give serious consideration to the HP Pro B9180. Yes, it's made by HP, not Epson or Canon. Yet it churns out beautiful 13 x 19-inch images that are rated for 200+ years. Combined with advanced features such as a densitometric closed loop color calibration system and built-in networking, this printer is a steal for about $510. Derrick Story reviews.

Joe Schorr on Color Management in Aperture
by Derrick Story
Tuesday February 13, 2007
Joe Schorr, Apple Senior Product Manager for Aperture, covers color management in Aperture 1.5.2. Derrick Story interviews Joe in this exclusive O'Reilly Media podcast.

Ben Long on Round-Tripping
by Derrick Story
Friday February 02, 2007
Round-tripping is when you take a picture that's in your Aperture library and adjust it in an external image editor, then return the changed version to your library. Most people assume that Photoshop will be the editor of choice, but Ben Long has been working with Nikon's Capture NX, and he has some interesting ideas about round-tripping with it instead. In this latest edition of Inside Aperture, we also talk about highlight recovery and lots of other tidbits.

January 2007

Photo Workflow on the Road - A Hitchhiker's Guide to Aperture
by Micah Walter
Friday January 26, 2007
For many photojournalists, traveling the world and owning a desktop computer back at the home base just isn't practical. But the laptop-only alternative -- making sure images are safely backed up, archived, organized, delivered to clients, and easily findable down the road once had its challenges too... before Aperture. In this article, Micah Walter provides Aperture tips for the photographer on the go.

Compare, Select, and Rate
by Derrick Story
Friday January 19, 2007
Aperture's powerful sorting tools enable photographers to cull hundreds of images quickly. This podcast features Derrick Story and Scott Bourne explaining the compare, select, and rating tools, including stacks, during a recent workshop at Macworld San Francisco.

Richard Kerris on Aperture Plug-In Development
by Derrick Story
Thursday January 04, 2007
Richard Kerris is a director in the Applications Division of Apple Computer. He focuses on professional photography partnerships, spending a lot of his time with third-party developers. In this edition of Inside Aperture, Derrick Story talks with Richard about the plug-in architecture for Aperture, both from programmer and photographer viewpoints.

December 2006

Joe Schorr on Aperture Sharpening and More
by Derrick Story
Thursday December 21, 2006
Joe Schorr, Apple Product Manager for Aperture, covers edge sharpening, metadata presets, and provides lots of helpful tips for working efficiently in Aperture 1.5.2. Derrick Story interviews Joe in this exclusive O'Reilly Media podcast.

Automated Workflow to Archive Your Best Images to DVD
by Derrick Story
Wednesday December 20, 2006
Aperture's Vault feature is an intelligent way to back up your photos to one or more external FireWire drives. As good as the system is, it depends on the integrity of your hard drives. As an extra measure of precaution, I also archive my best images to DVD. And to remove the tedium from the process, I've developed this semi-automated system to manage the process. Here's how it works.

Sal Soghoian on Automating Aperture
by Derrick Story
Wednesday December 13, 2006
No one knows more about bringing automation to Aperture than AppleScript guru Sal Soghoian. In this interview, Derrick Story talks with Sal about enhancing Aperture workflow using Automator. Sal makes many great points, including that automation is the way for users to customize an app for their specific needs.

Tethered Shooting in Aperture
by Micah Walter
Tuesday December 05, 2006
Sending captured images directly to your Mac provides some useful options in studio and time-lapse photography. In this tutorial, Micah Walter shows you how to incorporate Automator into your tethered workflow to help you shoot and process as efficiently as possible.

November 2006

Bill Frakes on Aperture
by Andrew Darlow
Tuesday November 28, 2006
Bill Frakes is a versatile pro shooter who is widely known for his Sports Illustrated work. In this podcast interview conducted by Andrew Darlow in New York City, Bill talks about his workflow and how he manages thousands of images using Aperture.

More Joe Schorr on Aperture 1.5
by Derrick Story
Tuesday November 14, 2006
Joe Schorr, Apple Product Manager for Aperture, digs deeper into Aperture 1.5, Apple's premier photo management application. He explains the new referenced files option and how it compares to the managed library approach. Joe also gives some great tips and discusses how you can use managed library and referenced files together.

Top Ten Aperture Features
by Scott Bourne
Wednesday November 01, 2006
Apple's ground-breaking, workflow tool for professional photographers has caused quite a stir in the imaging community. After working with Aperture for a year, I've decided that although it's not perfect, it has some incredible and exciting features that photographers can really use. Here are the 10 that top my list.

Joe Schorr on Aperture 1.5
by Derrick Story
Wednesday November 01, 2006
Joe Schorr, Apple Product Manager for Aperture, gives us an inside perspective on the development of Apple's premier photo management application. He discusses the program's evolution over the past year, then turns his focus to some of the new features in version 1.5.